Ny 
NATURE 

There is a wide-spread feeling that this form of govern- 
ment admits of improvement, and as the actual occupants 
of the posts in which an alteration is thought desirable 
stand deservedly very high in the estimation, not of the 
scientific world only, but in that of the community gene- 
rally, the reform of which we are about to speak can 
fortunately now be discussed without personality, and 
without any fear of the acrimony to which, under less 
auspicious circumstances, such a discussion would inevi- 
ably lead. 
The proposed alterations are of the very simplest kind, 
namely, that the tenure of office of the President should 
coincide with that of the rest of the Council, and that the 
Secretaries and Foreign Secretaries should be unpaid. 
The inconveniences of the present arrangement, on 
which our space only admits of a few words, are, first, 
that however efficient, impartial, and undespotic the Pre- 
sident and officers may be, their permanent tenure of 
their posts for a number of years in succession must tend 
to constitute them, in a Council undergoing yearly change, 
more or less an dmperium in imperio. Indeed, their very 
efiiciency and mastery of rule and precedent, in themselves 
most valuable attributes, aggravate, as well as generate, 
this tendency. The practical effect necessarily is, that 
the President and officers naturally and unavoidably get 
into the way of acting together, and of bringing before 
the Council matters for deliberation in somewhat of a cut 
and dried condition. At the opening of the Session, the 
new members, it is well known, are naturally diffident of 
expressing views adverse to those thus prepared for their 
acceptance by such experienced hands ; and it is a com- 
mon remark that it is only in his second year that a mem- 
ber serving on the Council for the first time usually de- 
clares his sentiments with independence and freedom. 
The choice, therefore, seems to lie between the experience 
which results from long service in the chair and secretariat, 
and the greater scope for deliberative activity, which 
limited service in those posts would afford. 
In deciding between the two alternatives, the character 
of the Council must be considered. It contains a small 
selected section drawn from a large highly select body, 
the very créme de la créme of the science and intellect 
of the kingdom, men who, one and all, are supposed to 
have gained their position by the most severe intellectual 
discipline, and who value that position as one of great 
responsibility and high honour. If chance, or favouritism, 
or money, or rank, had any appreciable influence on their 
election, the case would be very different. Some dry nursing 
might then be not amiss. But in the actual case, a Council 
composed of the flower of English intellect may safely be 
left to deliberate with unfettered republican freedom. 
Another inconvenience attending the permanent, or 
rather unlimited, Presidentship, is one which may be 
indicated without in the slightest degree applying it to the 
present distinguished occupant of the chair, namely, the 
extreme difficulty, without causing a scandal, of removing 
an inefficient or undesirable President. 
A third inconvenience consists inthe tendency towards 
an unduly Conservative policy, which a permanent Presi- 
dent is liable to betray ; and a fourth disadvantage is, 
that the particular department of Science to which the 
President is devoted is apt to be kept too continuously 
prominent. These tendencies are opposed to the vigor- 


ous progress and the wide expansion of scientific thought 
which it is the purpose of the Royal Society to foster. 
We have but lightly touched upon the salient features 
of the question, which is one admitting of a vast variety 
of opinions, some of which, we trust, will be elicited by 
our remarks, for the appearance of which in these 
columns we feel that no apology is necessary.* 

THE GEOLOGY OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
OF SOUTH AFRICA 
ite 
the September number of the Cafe Monthly Maga- 
zine is an interesting article on the above subject, 
by Dr. John Shaw, Gold Medallist in Geology at Glasgow 
University, from which we have made the following ex- 
tracts :— 
“In February. 1869, I published a paper in the 
Grahamstown Fournal on the geological structure of the 
Vaal Region along the line where diamonds were founc. 
This was chiefly intended as a reply to Mr. Gregory's 
denial of the veritability of the discovery of diamonds cn 
various grounds, mainly geological and mineralogical, 
after a journey of exploration in the region, 
“Since that time the finds of surface diamonds have 
increased, the stretch of country supposed to be diamond- 
iferous has extended, and, at the present time, systematic 
digging and washing for diamonds are being carried on 
with an enthusiasm which success alone can have created, 
by upwards of 1,000 white men in different parts of the 
Vaal Region, but principally at Klipdrift, near Poreil, 
“Tn July of this year I made considerable observations 
in the Vaal Valley, which show that the rocks are chiefly 
trappean, metamorphic, and conglomerate in character. 
I detected no pure granite formation, but syenite is, how- 
ever, developed extensively, and seems to be the base of 
the whole system of rocks at Klipdrift. A very singular 
rock appears in the shape of isolated boulders on the 
summits of the Kopjes, and especially of the celebrated 
Old Kopje. This I take to be graphic granite (binary 
granite), or what Dana would call ‘ granilite,’ consisting 
solely of quartz and large crystals of felspar. 
“ Above the syenite is a trap conglomerate in some 
places, in others are amygdaloids, and protruding through 
these again, basalt, assuming everywhere the hexagonal 
structure, and arising in some places into insulated and 
compacted columns. 
“In some of the Kopjes there are remains of stratified 
rocks—clay schists, sandstone, chalk (or something very 
like it), which are evidently the last vestiges of a vast 
series of sedimentary strata, which formerly covered the 
whole present contour, but which have gradually given 
way to denudation and cataclysm. 
“Such is the character of the present rock system at 
Klipdrift, and with a few additions (mainly supercumbent) — 
of the whole rock series of the Vaal region. . 
“On the summits of the Kopjes, and as a matter of 
course, in the crevices between the basaltic boulders, is 
an alluvial gravel. In this are found the diamonds, and 
on the surface some have been found, indicators of the 
wealth beneath. The pebbles of sandstone, quartzite, 
* The foregoing article, received from a valued contributor, is of so 
much importance that we have given it this prominence without committing 
ourselves to an approval of the precise course proposed ; we rather invite 
discussion,—Ep. 
og Oat: ete ee Boe 
